Hiii! We are Al and Clau of Athena Keke’s — a queer bar concept for women’s sports coming to Brooklyn.
Al: I played sports (soccer, basketball, skiing, golf) as a kid recreationally but was never good or committed to any of them. I fell out of the sports world in my 20s because it did not feel inviting. I realize now that I missed out on being a women’s sports fan throughout college and beyond because they were not widely marketed in the way that men’s sports were/are. I am thrilled to see this changing and since meeting Clau in 2015, I have dived deep back into the world of sports fandom and I am stoked to be here.
Clau: I grew up playing soccer and tennis competitively in Bolivia and have continued to play soccer recreationally throughout my life. I have always been big on watching and playing sports, including watching men’s soccer and tennis. Al and I have had season tickets for both the Liberty and Gotham FC for the last two years so we have been to a lot of games and we keep coming back because the vibes are on point and there is a real sense of community and advocacy within the fanbase.
Al & Clau: We are so excited to work with W.S. Rally to help create inviting spaces for fans to gather and share their passion for women’s sports. We hope to meet lots of new sports friends through W.S. Rally events that we can welcome to Athena Keke’s!
Hello, my name is Annalisa. I played a ton of sports growing up--baseball, basketball, football, soccer, you name it--and was very active as a kid.
As I got older, I realized how little attention women's sports received in the major leagues. I even took a course on women's soccer in college... It was disheartening. The pay gap for athletes, blatant discrimination (sexism, racism), etc.
Now amid my transition (as a trans man), I see similar rhetoric stalling trans athletes. I wish people realized that equity and parity in women's sports is not just a women's issue and advocating for better pay, better services, and greater resources allocated to women's sports would liberate so many of us. We must fight our internalized misogyny, capitalist and sexist ideals.
Aloha! I'm Jodie. My sport is surfing and I became a super fan of women's sports when I discovered that a small group of kickass big wave women surfers fought for and won pay equity globally. That brought me to the USWNT fight for pay equity and from there I was hooked. My wish would be, that we are able to leverage the emerging economic might of women's sports to (em)power our communities.
Hi! Michael (aka doctofu from culture therapy). Sports was a core part of my identity in high school and college. It helped me break stereotypes about nerdy Asian kids (at least in my own head). A very special thing about my high school swim and water polo teams was that all of our practices and competitions were held with the other high school in our district. The boys and girls teams were also always together for the whole experience - training, roadtrips, competitions, pancake breakfasts, the whole thing. Looking back, I think a key reason we churned out so many individual and team state champions was because of the way staff and athletes came together as a collective organism.
That and my love of all things LSU sports got me into women's sports. Although I will say I think I'm only at the beginning of my women's sports journey. And if I could make one wish for women's sports come true it'd be equal pay for athletes.
Hi my name is Campbell, I have always been an athlete and played competitively for decades, I love women's sports and have been a life long fan. My biggest wish for women's sports is to find ways to eliminate trolling of women's sports, I find it depressing and it purposely ruins any monumental celebration moment, it's a strategy that is effective and I would love to come up with a counter strategy. I do believe effective things have happened, like having celebrity male athletes wear "Everyone Watches Women's Sports" shirts, and other celebrity men positively commenting on women players and teams, I feel the burden has been on them and I think many are stepping up to support and share their voice but I believe some of the root issues are held by the platforms where content is shared, how bots and trolls have manipulated systems to game the comment section. It's a larger problem in general but something I want to focus on even if it seems like challenging unresponsive giants.
Hiii! We are Al and Clau of Athena Keke’s — a queer bar concept for women’s sports coming to Brooklyn.
Al: I played sports (soccer, basketball, skiing, golf) as a kid recreationally but was never good or committed to any of them. I fell out of the sports world in my 20s because it did not feel inviting. I realize now that I missed out on being a women’s sports fan throughout college and beyond because they were not widely marketed in the way that men’s sports were/are. I am thrilled to see this changing and since meeting Clau in 2015, I have dived deep back into the world of sports fandom and I am stoked to be here.
Clau: I grew up playing soccer and tennis competitively in Bolivia and have continued to play soccer recreationally throughout my life. I have always been big on watching and playing sports, including watching men’s soccer and tennis. Al and I have had season tickets for both the Liberty and Gotham FC for the last two years so we have been to a lot of games and we keep coming back because the vibes are on point and there is a real sense of community and advocacy within the fanbase.
Al & Clau: We are so excited to work with W.S. Rally to help create inviting spaces for fans to gather and share their passion for women’s sports. We hope to meet lots of new sports friends through W.S. Rally events that we can welcome to Athena Keke’s!
Hello, my name is Annalisa. I played a ton of sports growing up--baseball, basketball, football, soccer, you name it--and was very active as a kid.
As I got older, I realized how little attention women's sports received in the major leagues. I even took a course on women's soccer in college... It was disheartening. The pay gap for athletes, blatant discrimination (sexism, racism), etc.
Now amid my transition (as a trans man), I see similar rhetoric stalling trans athletes. I wish people realized that equity and parity in women's sports is not just a women's issue and advocating for better pay, better services, and greater resources allocated to women's sports would liberate so many of us. We must fight our internalized misogyny, capitalist and sexist ideals.
Thissssssss ^^^^
Aloha! I'm Jodie. My sport is surfing and I became a super fan of women's sports when I discovered that a small group of kickass big wave women surfers fought for and won pay equity globally. That brought me to the USWNT fight for pay equity and from there I was hooked. My wish would be, that we are able to leverage the emerging economic might of women's sports to (em)power our communities.
Hi! Michael (aka doctofu from culture therapy). Sports was a core part of my identity in high school and college. It helped me break stereotypes about nerdy Asian kids (at least in my own head). A very special thing about my high school swim and water polo teams was that all of our practices and competitions were held with the other high school in our district. The boys and girls teams were also always together for the whole experience - training, roadtrips, competitions, pancake breakfasts, the whole thing. Looking back, I think a key reason we churned out so many individual and team state champions was because of the way staff and athletes came together as a collective organism.
That and my love of all things LSU sports got me into women's sports. Although I will say I think I'm only at the beginning of my women's sports journey. And if I could make one wish for women's sports come true it'd be equal pay for athletes.
Hi my name is Campbell, I have always been an athlete and played competitively for decades, I love women's sports and have been a life long fan. My biggest wish for women's sports is to find ways to eliminate trolling of women's sports, I find it depressing and it purposely ruins any monumental celebration moment, it's a strategy that is effective and I would love to come up with a counter strategy. I do believe effective things have happened, like having celebrity male athletes wear "Everyone Watches Women's Sports" shirts, and other celebrity men positively commenting on women players and teams, I feel the burden has been on them and I think many are stepping up to support and share their voice but I believe some of the root issues are held by the platforms where content is shared, how bots and trolls have manipulated systems to game the comment section. It's a larger problem in general but something I want to focus on even if it seems like challenging unresponsive giants.